Chapter 12

'Oh man, this is weird. I have already seen this on the anime, but it just feels weird seeing this in person...' Seal thought as he watches the group of people, using his «Extreme Stealth», which he had gotten to level 4 by continuously using the skill to attack the behemoths. It was one of the reasons why Seal disappeared from the monsters' sight instantaneously.

Seal continues watching them trying to escape to safety. He was specifically paying attention to a black-haired boy.

Hajime was now using his «Transmute» to buy time for his classmates. Although the wall that he built wasn't strong enough to hold back the behemoth for a long time, it was enough for all of them, except Hajime, to retreat to safety.

"Hajime! Retreat now! We have your back!" Yelled Meld.

"Hajime-kun!" Kaori said worriedly.

Hajime stopped using [Transmute] and turned around, running for his life. While his teammates bought him some time by preparing magics to slow down the behemoth. The behemoth was mad because one of its horns was cut off by humans!

It furiously charged at Hajime and his teammates, with horns ready to stab anyone in its ways.

"Ready?! Fire!" Meld yelled to the group of heroes.

A volley of white-bluish magic balls came hurling at the massive behemoth and exploded in front of it. It did not do very much damage, but despite that, they kept on firing more volleys of the magic. But suddenly, one of the magic balls had gone off its trajectory and went towards Hajime. It had collided with Hajime, knocking him off the bridge along with the behemoth.

Seal, seeing this, could only frown and sigh. He then sent a fireball towards the person who had directed that magic ball at Hajime. He did not have the time to scream as he burns to ashes. It was at that moment, an insignificant person ceased to exist from this world. Seal then jumped off from where he was, diving toward the seemingly endless pit.

Meanwhile, the group of heroes was anxious and shocked. Especially Kaori, she was in despair seeing the person she like fall from the bridge.

"HAJIME-KUN!!!!" She yelled while reaching out her hand over the edge. Luckily, she did not fall as Shizuku was holding Kaori back.

"Kaori! Don't do it!"

"But Hajime-kun..." Kaori spoke in a cracked and sad voice.

"Kaori, don't cry. I'm here." She stroked Kaori's head.

It managed to calm Kaori down a bit, but she continued sobbing.

"What?! Someone jumped!" Someone said as they pointed toward an area that was hardly visible from where they were.

This brought everyone's attention to the figure that was falling. Many of them could not see the person's figure from where they were, but 2 people were able to see it.

"Who is that, Shizuku?" Kaori asked the person hugging her without taking her eyes off the figure.

"..."

Kaori waited a few seconds but did not receive any reply. She furrowed her eyebrows. Turning her head around, she saw Shizuku with her jaw opened, looking dazed.

"S-Seal?!" Shizuku unintentionally thought out loud, and it was heard by Kaori.

"Seal? Who's that?"

"Huh? Oh, n-no one!" Shizuku hurriedly said. She had decided to keep her encounter with Seal a secret.

"Suspicious..."

...

"Ughh... Where am I...? My body hurts so bad." A boy groaned, and his body was sprawled out on the floor. He opened his eyes slightly, and his vision was very blurry. But after a few moments, he was able to regain his eyesight.

'I remember that I was running but... I realized a magic ball was coming towards me, and I didn't have time to dodge. The magic ball seems deliberately aimed at me, but I don't know why anyone would want to kill me.' The boy thought. This was none other than Hajime Nagumo.

*Growl*

He heard a growl from behind him that made his back froze. Hajime quickly turns around, only to see a wolf with white fur. They had some glowing red spots on their furs, but the most distinctive part of the wolves was their two tails.

Hajime then saw a rabbit-like creature hopping towards him. It was cute... or so he thought until the rabbit disappeared in front of him and decapitated the wolf's head.

"A-AHH!" He screamed out in despair. I can't fight that! Absolutely not, it's much stronger than the other monsters we have fought against!

The rabbit then switched its target to the scared Hajime and teleported right in front of him. But before it could do anything, the rabbit went up in flame.

"Damn, these Kickmaster Rabbits are fast!" A male voice complained.

"Who?!" Hajime was happy but also frightened to hear another human voice. He did not know if that person had any bad intentions. Though, he had to say that the person in front of him was the most handsome male he had met. Not even the idols back on Earth were his match in terms of looks.

"Oh, hi there!" The person said.

=====

"H-hello," Hajime said.

"What's your name? My name is Seal Azathoth, and you can call me Seal." Seal said.

'It's better to act like I don't know him, so he does not get suspicious of me." He thought.

"My name is Hajime Nagumo. Thank you for saving me." Hajime was grateful to Seal.

"No problem. Here, change your clothes." Seal handed Hajime a clean pair of clothing.

After Hajime fell, Seal followed along because he remembered that he could get to the 1st floor of the True Labyrinth Level quicker through this shortcut.

Seal already took care of the Claw Bear and the Kickmaster Rabbit, so they did not have to worry about them attacking.

While Hajime was changing his clothes, Seal went to the spot where the Divinity Stone was.

The Divinity Stone wasn't a natural form one but a man-made one by Oscar Orcus. The magic power that was stored inside that Divinity Stone was absurdly huge because Oscar had poured his high mana into it for years.

But Oscar had "accidentally" dropped it down a giant hole on the 65th floor. Coincidentally, it was the same hole that Hajime and Seal fell through.

Seal planned on extracting the Divinity Stone and store it inside his system inventory. The water of the Divinity Stone was like a full-recovery potion, but it did not restore limbs.

While the water might be useless to Seal because he had a self-healing skill, but he might need it for the future.

"Seal-san, I'm done!" Seal heard Hajime's shout.

"Coming!" He replied.

Seal then walked back to where Hajime was.

"Where were you?" Hajime asked.

"I found a Divinity Stone was over there." Seal said.

"Divinity Stone?! The one that heals all injuries with its water?"

"Yeah."

"Where is it?!" Hajime asked Seal excitedly. He had always wanted to see the Legendary Divinity Stone that was said to take 1,000 years to form.

"It's inside this rock." Seal pointed to a massive rock that was 25 meters away from them.

"But, how are we going to get inside it? As far as I see, there is no entrance."

"Don't worry about that. It's very easy to enter this."

"How?" Hajime questioned.

"You break it!" Just as Seal finished saying that, he punched a hole into the massive rock.

"..." Hajime just stared at the round hole. I don't think anyone can just do that Seal-san, and how can you punch a hole that is so perfectly round?!

Seal walked through the hole with Hajime following behind. Soon, they came across a cave big enough to fit a few people. A shiny round crystal was stuck on the roof in the middle of the space. There was also a puddle of water under that crystal. Needless to say, it was a Divinity Stone.

"Woah! It's really a Divinity Stone!" Hajime cried out. He began inspecting the stone as if it was a book.

"I plan on extracting the Divinity Stone. Can you help me?" Seal asked.

"Okay, I can help you extract it." Hajime was not surprised as anyone would want to extract the stone if they had the proper knowledge.

"Thank you!" Seal sincerely thanked him.

They spent the next few hours extracting the Divinity Stone and set up a temporary base. But Seal noticed a problem, there were no foods. He had been filling his stomach with foods from the system's shop. If he were to take out foods from out of nowhere, then he would be suspicious. Seal had thought about eating monster meat, but it had side effects such as changing your race. And frankly, Seal did not want to change into a monster-human hybrid because his race is already being doubted by the system to be Human.

『Notice! The host's cooking skill had reached the max level, so foods that is cooked by the host will not have any bad side effects and only benefits.』

Seal heard a piece of unexpected information from the system right when he was conflicted about what to do. His «Cooking» skill seems more extraordinary than he thought. Aside from making the dishes great, it would also remove all the bad side effects. Seal's thought was suddenly interrupted by a voice.

"What are we going to do about food?" Hajime was starting to feel hungry.

"We can eat monster meat." Seal said.

"Ok, that's great! Wait... monster meat?!" Hajime was baffled. Is something wrong with you?! Eating monster meat will kill you! Normally people would try to avoid that, right?!

"Um, Seal-san, you know that eating monster meat will kill you, right?"

"Yes, I know. But I know how to remove the bad side effects so that we would not turn into monsters."

"How?" Hajime was once again shocked. Won't that be really great? We won't have to run out of food again because essentially the source of monster meats is infinite. After all, monsters respawn over time.

"By cooking it!" Seal said proudly.